I was thoroughly looking forward to this after seeing ROA live on the Toronto stage. The movie is a major disappointment. Aaron Walpole was hilarious as Lonny on stage and Russell Brand was just plain flat here. Julia Hough was lovely to look at as Sheri but her version of sexy was "Gleeful" and she can't rock. The killer however was the general treatment of the music. 80s hairband musicI was thoroughly looking forward to this after seeing ROA live on the Toronto stage. The movie is a major disappointment. Aaron Walpole was hilarious as Lonny on stage and Russell Brand was just plain flat here. Julia Hough was lovely to look at as Sheri but her version of sexy was "Gleeful" and she can't rock. The killer however was the general treatment of the music. 80s hairband music has to be raw and rocking. What the heck were they thinking by smoothing out all of the edges and autotuning all the voices? This movie production made me 'Stop Believing".…Expand

All I can say is that it was alright but not the best movie I have ever seen. My friends dragged me along to see it and all I like was the remakes of brilliant rock songs which I like that is all I liked about Rock of Ages

I would give this movie a 6 only because of the fact that the plot is very slow and runs on thin ice the entire time, but Julianne Hough who is beautiful does a pretty good job, and Tom Cruise who has a good rock voice surprisingly made this enjoyable. I knew all the songs and was singing along to about most of them. I hated it but I loved it. Go see it in theaters.

It's hard to figure out what type of film they were trying to make here, but for those looking for a quick 411 on what to expect here's the bottom line: For the 21 and under crowd who enjoy such films as High School Musical and Hannah Montana - this might be right up your alley. For the over 21 crowd- if you're looking for a musical to see with your BFF, or GBF, or both and don't mindIt's hard to figure out what type of film they were trying to make here, but for those looking for a quick 411 on what to expect here's the bottom line: For the 21 and under crowd who enjoy such films as High School Musical and Hannah Montana - this might be right up your alley. For the over 21 crowd- if you're looking for a musical to see with your BFF, or GBF, or both and don't mind musicals geared more towards talented singing and less about story and plot then this will also fit the bill.

However, if anyone was under the delusion that this would do for the late 80's/early 90's era, what Grease did for the 50's then to say that this was off the mark would be an understatement of legendary proportion. If anyone was hoping that the fantastic camera work, lighting, sound and locations coupled with nostalgic tunes would have the same impact as Moulin Rouge, but in a more modern period then once again- legendary understatement. Part of the problem is with what normally can be considered a Hollywood strength- continuity. The year that this story takes place may represent the beginning of the peak of Hair Band Rock N' Roll, but certainly not the transition out of it, which obviously came years later. The fact that a majority of the songs used for the film weren't even released yet in the time frame that the story is set. Also- it seemed like the story was Frankensteined together using a part of the plot from a modified Coyote Ugly- only the boy is more the focus. And although all of the people in the movie are likable, due to the films' immense ensemble cast it's not possible to relate to, or understand the nature of any character since we only spend a few minutes at a time with each. I should also point out that the story of the young female lead is unsuitable for young girls and gives a very poor impression of how to make difficult choices in life.

Most upsetting of all is that for those of us that grew up in the era when Rock N' Roll was at its' peak, the portrayal of those we used to idolize, or quasi-worship and possibly even be, is beyond stereotypical and one dimensional and ultimately highly offensive. I for one was hoping for a movie that might bring back some great memories of a time and place when being irresponsible and naive were just a part of being acceptably ignorant and free. Back then, thanks to the lack of technology, private moments and stories easily became inside jokes and were almost always attached to a favorite song that later in life provokes nostalgia.

I suppose overall I was simply confused. I didn't know what the film was trying to do, or say and it felt as if it was an entertaining movie solely for the sake of being entertaining as a musical. Kind of like a talent show routine, only longer.

Despite all of this, I do believe that all of the cast did an exceptional job and the talented singing was absolutely the highlight. On par with Duets in terms of quality. I was refreshingly surprised at how great Tom Cruise's voice was- even though I never quite understood what his character's impediment was.

Having spent several of my personal developmental years on the Sunset Strip I found most of the references and innuendo to be comforting and funny at times. I am not sure if this will be the same for anyone who hasn't grown up, or spent a substantial amount of time in L.A. As far as hilarity goes, I counted a total of 8 occasions when the audience laughed at situations in the film, but they were all very short lived. So this movie is not quite a comedy with a touch of wannabe romance that has shockingly little drama and definitely no action, but it is a musical by definition and therefore I split the difference and gave it an honest 5. If you want to see a real Rock N' Roll film with great music, a compelling story and real soul- go rent Almost Famous. I applaud the effort to bring a lighthearted movie with the intention of cheering up a somewhat depressed culture, but at the end of the day Rock of Ages simply lacks heart.…Expand

The biggest surprise: this movie is funny (intentionally). Sure, there's a trite love story, but the supporting cast provides quite a few laughs. What takes up most of the time is a string of anthem rock classics sung by every member of the cast. Some are fun and successful (the best gay love song ever), but many are downright embarrassing. Tom Cruise, as the metal god, is sometimesThe biggest surprise: this movie is funny (intentionally). Sure, there's a trite love story, but the supporting cast provides quite a few laughs. What takes up most of the time is a string of anthem rock classics sung by every member of the cast. Some are fun and successful (the best gay love song ever), but many are downright embarrassing. Tom Cruise, as the metal god, is sometimes swaggering cool, sometimes funny. Adam Shankman's direction/choreography is occasionally dazzling. Overall, this non-stop barrage of rock music videos succeeds on some levels and is simply silly on others.…Expand

So this certainly wasn't a perfect film. Do not go in with high expectations unless you are specifically looking for a cheesy love story musical with bad acting and lackluster directing. Their were so many flaws with this film, acting being a big one, but it was just filled with awkward and cheesy moments. Some of the singing was just uncalled for, some of the actors just burst into songSo this certainly wasn't a perfect film. Do not go in with high expectations unless you are specifically looking for a cheesy love story musical with bad acting and lackluster directing. Their were so many flaws with this film, acting being a big one, but it was just filled with awkward and cheesy moments. Some of the singing was just uncalled for, some of the actors just burst into song at random awkward moments. The positives of the film? Tom Cruise was awesome, great soundtrack, and some decent comedy but thats about it. I was very disappointed with this movie considering i went in expecting a hilarious musical with a great cast but it didn't work out so well. I would not recomend this film to anyone. 3.5/10…Expand

This review contains spoilers.
When it comes to explaining rock and roll, only Pete Townshend, according to Jeff Bebe, lead singer of the fictional band Stillwater, can articulate its essence with any intellectual rigor. He believes in all earnestness that the poetry of sex and drugs will save the world. So did the filmmaker, once upon a time, as a cub reporter for Rolling Stone in his 2000 bildungsroman Almost Famous. By the 1980s, the seasoned journalist probably knew that mom was right: rock and roll was indeed the poetry of sex and drugs, but at least those artists stood for something; they wanted to end the war, unlike, for instance, Def Leppard, who probably had no aspirations of, for starters, ending the cold war. Ultimately, the music of the sixties was the poetry of social consciousness. Stacee Jaxx, however, we can reasonably conclude, has no thoughts on the Falkland Islands crisis, the closest thing to Vietnam, concurrent to his epoch in time. Rock of Ages is Lester Bangs' worst nightmare. This jukebox musical plays like a paean to The Industry of Cool, the label Bangs affixed to a music biz he saw that was, to his chagrin, being commodified. Still, despite whatever reservations one may have about the artistic bankruptcy of a banal hair metal band such as Arsenal, who in Rock of Ages, comes under attack by the mayor's wife, you still had to, as the Beastie Boys so eloquently put it, "fight for [their] right to party." Jaxx has the right to pour sugar on whomever he pleases. Patricia Whitmore, unmistakably, is modeled after Tipper Gore, who in 1984 formed the P.M.R.C., the organization responsible for labeling records with potentially offensive lyrics, after the almost First Lady caught her daughter singing along to a Purple Rain album track, the incendiary "Darling Nikki". Aaaah, Prince. When it came to explaining rock and roll during the MTV age, nobody defended it better than Jello Biafra, who on an early episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, faced Gore down, and charged the religious right-funded organization with "play[ing] on the fear of parents too chicken to talk to their own kids." Being, supposedly, a liberal democrat, Gore's conservative agenda seemed at odds with the party's ideals, and her own roots. Coming of age in the late-sixties, it would seem inconceivable that Tipper had never experimented with drugs, or put the needle on the groove of The White Album. There had to have been a skeleton, similar to the osterological frippery in Rock of Ages, when the truth comes out about Patricia, who turns out to be a former groupie, hidden in plain sight within the gatefold sleeve of Arsenal's debut album, posing alongside Stacey, practically naked. Patricia, however, differs slightly from Gore, in that she may not necessarily be a Christian. A sort of veiled commentary, at the outset, is made on the Bourbon Room marquee, where it publicizes Bad Religion as the club's headlining act for the night. On a subtextual level, what foretell could that bad religion be? If Patricia's rendition of Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", in a church, no less, provides any indication, the bad religion must be Christianity. The couplet: "You're a real tough cookie with a long history/Of breaking little hearts like the one in me," on the surface, shows the moral crusader addressing her long ago fling with Jaxx, but the lyrics can also easily be construed as a rebuke against God. Even more blasphemous than singing a secular song in a house of worship, is the application of the sadomasochistic theme inherent in the Benatar "classic" to Jesus' crucifixion at Golgotha. She's a Scientologist, just like the man who plays the archetypal headbanger. During Foreigner's Christian-sounding "I Want to Know What Love Is", Cruise sings to Malin Akerman's ass, then vagina, as they pantomime sex in a dressing room. The hyper-carnality of Stacy Jaxx, more than overcompensates for the Abba-fying of REO Speedwagon, when Dennis and Lonny out themselves, thereby appeasing Cruise's church, known for its promotion of reparative therapy. Christopher Hitchens was right. Religion does poison everything. Wasn't Rock of Ages supposed to celebrate rock and roll as a religion in its own right, a salve for the broken soul, like when Sherrie tells Jaxx, "When my hamster died, your music really helped me through?" Lester Bangs must be rolling in his grave. As a retort to the proselytizing activists cries of "We're Not Going To Take It", the film uses Starship's "We Built This City"(a band, and song, reviled by many) as an unlikely anthem that embodies the bacchanal genre's so-called spirit. Rock of Ages gets its history wrong. Boy bands didn't kill hair metal bands like Arsenal, and their real life contemporaries. Nirvana did. While Jaxx belts out "Don't Stop Believin'" to a sold-out crowd, in the real timeline, Kurt Cobain was checking out Green River at some tiny Seattle club.…Collapse

I thought Rock of Ages was supposed to be a good summer movie after I buy Lollipop Chainsaw, unfortunately I agree with the critics and I think Scientology wasn't the only one who causing this shame. The cast look great in Rock of Ages, but here's the problem. The musical numbers were too cheesey. Do you think Tom Cruise should idol his rock and roll persona from his Risky Business daysI thought Rock of Ages was supposed to be a good summer movie after I buy Lollipop Chainsaw, unfortunately I agree with the critics and I think Scientology wasn't the only one who causing this shame. The cast look great in Rock of Ages, but here's the problem. The musical numbers were too cheesey. Do you think Tom Cruise should idol his rock and roll persona from his Risky Business days and perform with rock legends like Alice Cooper, Bret Michaels, and Slash? Could be. But things haven't been change for the "Mission Impossible" star. Because of the failure of the box office for the movie, it was announced in July that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's marriage went kaput. First, it was Nicole Kidman and now Katie Holmes. The divorce was finalized and TomKat is no more. Well, I don't think Cruise's career is in jeopardy, I like Tom Cruise and he has every single minute when it comes to action movies, but Rock of Ages wasn't a good year for him. Hopefully, I could usually rent it on Netflix.…Expand

When i first heard about this movie, i can't help myself but to get so excited to looking forward for this movie. Why...? it's simple because i'm an 80's-90's entertainments lover (especially of course, its Music). And boy oh boy this movie didn't disappointing me at all. Almost 85% of the great music in the 80's appear in this movie from Journey, Guns, Jovi, REO and even Starship are allWhen i first heard about this movie, i can't help myself but to get so excited to looking forward for this movie. Why...? it's simple because i'm an 80's-90's entertainments lover (especially of course, its Music). And boy oh boy this movie didn't disappointing me at all. Almost 85% of the great music in the 80's appear in this movie from Journey, Guns, Jovi, REO and even Starship are all appeared in this movie. Bur for the fairness & objectivity, i must admit that the plot of this movie is just so-so just like all the 80's or Class B or C movie type, the acting its just so-so EXCEPT Mr. Tom Cruise. YES he is the savior of this movie he is Stacy Jaxx. Tom is successfully on delivering the whole persona of Jaxx or in general what the 80's rock singer personality looks like. And i'm sure what surprise all of us is that Mr. Cruise, is actually has a good singing voice. Paul Paul Giamatti as great as usual in his antagonistic roles. The newcomer Diego Bonetta has fair share skill in both singing & acting and the rest again, their acting skill just so-so. The director, Adam Shankman can be safely said that he is quite successful on directing this movie but not as great as his previous work on "Hairspray" and to sum up all this review, i could say that this movie it's the Rock & Roll Version of Glee and if u also an 80's music lover like me, this movie is a must & i guarantee that this movie wouldn't disappoint u at all.. :)…Expand

For this to survive in the cinema, it needed the large ensemble cast for it to survive, and it needed the big stars to save it from being a completely bland and lacklustre attempt at a stage to screen movie, because it is all of the above, with very little shining moments in between.
Set in 1980s Los Angeles, we see Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) try to make it in the city of angels.For this to survive in the cinema, it needed the large ensemble cast for it to survive, and it needed the big stars to save it from being a completely bland and lacklustre attempt at a stage to screen movie, because it is all of the above, with very little shining moments in between.
Set in 1980s Los Angeles, we see Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) try to make it in the city of angels.
As an aspiring singer, Sherrie happens accidentally across The Bourbon club, an infamous rock and roll venue ran by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) and his associate, (and more than friend) Lonny Barnett (Russell Brand), who play host on occasion to the legendary band Arsenal, led by the eccentric and infamous rock stars rolled into one, Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise).
The storyline of love and despair through song eventually kicks in with Sherrie falling for Bourbon barman and (who knew) aspiring singer Drew Boley (Diego Boneta).
To hear your favourite songs of yester-year being belted out by Cruise is a true privilege, but not only to the songs feel too studio, the story for which they are placed is just too plain, boring and predictable.
Hough and Boley's characters fall in love around ten minutes into this sing a-long, that has to be a record considering this film weighs in at over two hours long, it was indeed a long attempt at fitting a story and a musical into this time frame, i would have been satisfied with the singing alone, simply because these two lovebirds cannot carry the movie alone, their characters simply aren't captivating enough to sustain as the sole leads, cue Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin and even the limited screen time of Bryan Cranston to help pull this rock show through.There is also a small but significant appearance from the brilliant Paul Giamatti.
Was it a case of the film moving too quickly? No, quite the opposite in fact, more time should have been spent actually creating a relevant environment for the songs to occur rather than throwing a scene together just to fit the pace of the film and completely randomise a song choice, causing the song to feel out of place and rushed at times. Tom Cruise is arguably the standout of the film, his one line sexual innuendos are brilliant, his wonderful throw back to the rock stars of the past help put him in the drivers seat to belt out such classics as Don't Stop Believing, (not butchering it, I'm looking at you Glee), Wanted Dead or Alive, Here I Go Again etc etc.
Like mentioned before, the big numbers sound too staged and and remixed, but they are still fun to listen to, even if it wasn't the original vocals.
The bad hair is there, the LA skyline is there, and the tightly clad female strippers are also in large proportions, but this simply isn't enough to save this not so much cheesy, but more believing it is so much better than it actually is film. Sheer fun, but not fun in the sense of it knowing its own premise, Rock of Ages tries to hard to deliver something that got lost in the mail a long time ago, see it for the nostalgia and for the Hollywood household names, but this is one rock concert you may want to ask for a refund or demand the starring acts be put into a supporting or opening band role, leave it to the professionals to deliver the goods.…Expand

Ignore this review. I was trying to review a the PC game of same title. I will delete this space if metacritic will allow me, but it's not obvious how to do so. I rated average user review of 6 to not affect the overall ratings.

Rock of Ages is a film about the survival of Rock & Roll and the people who live it. It's a decent movie but it starts out with a really cheesy quality that plagues most musicals and makes it difficult to get into the plot. Most of that is due to the fact that the first part of the movie is centered almost entirely around Julianne Hough. While she is absolutely gorgeous, is a fantasticRock of Ages is a film about the survival of Rock & Roll and the people who live it. It's a decent movie but it starts out with a really cheesy quality that plagues most musicals and makes it difficult to get into the plot. Most of that is due to the fact that the first part of the movie is centered almost entirely around Julianne Hough. While she is absolutely gorgeous, is a fantastic dancer, and is even a decent singer, her acting ability is essentially nonexistent. However, once you get into the meat of the movie it's actually quite enjoyable. Sure, the impromptu musical numbers popping in throughout the film sometimes feel a little ridiculous but the mash-ups that are done and put together really well and progress the plot along well portraying the feelings and emotion of the moment. Also, Tom Cruise' role as Stacee Jaxx absolutely steels the show. This was honestly probably one of my favorite Cruise roles because he was pretty hilarious but also it's a character we've never really seen before, not just from him but in general. There were some surprising roles by people like Mary J. Blige, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Malin Akerman that I wasn't aware of before watching. There were also some unexpected cameos by Constantine Maroulis (former American Idol contestant and pop/rock singer), Kevin Cronin (of REO Speedwagon), and Sebastian Bach (modern metal God and former singer of Skid Row). Overall, I think rock fans will enjoy the film but I'm not sure how well most people would. Personally, I love rock and enjoyed it for the most part but there were even times, especially towards the beginning and end, where it felt like it just dragged on and on. There was even a funny part in the end where the lyrics of one of the songs covered stated how the movie goes "on and on and on and on" and that seemed like an accurate assessment.…Expand

This was a decent movie, that is as exactly advertised. Its basically a musical with Tom Cruise in the lead role. The plot was again, decent, leaving much to be desired from the random breaking out into song throughout the movie. Not a great, but still not bad.

Even though I'm not a big fan of the style of music in this movie, I still think if your a fan of musicals than this is worth a watch. It has its flaws, but it's entertaining enough and Tom Cruise gives a solid performance.

I'm a big fan of movies and musicals. But when the two mix it usually isn't good. It seems they are always shot for shot remakes that somehow take the fun out (like Rent) and there are ones that try way too hard (like Les Miserables). This one is sort of in the middle with fun 80s music and an Ok story. It's just the acting and singing that makes this movie cringeworthy. Fun has itsI'm a big fan of movies and musicals. But when the two mix it usually isn't good. It seems they are always shot for shot remakes that somehow take the fun out (like Rent) and there are ones that try way too hard (like Les Miserables). This one is sort of in the middle with fun 80s music and an Ok story. It's just the acting and singing that makes this movie cringeworthy. Fun has its limits, these mainly serious actors make fools of themselves and many can't sing. The ones that can (like Hough and Diego I don't know his last name) are terrible actors. These things make this great musical a bad movie. The thing is they were so close because they had fun unlike many movie musicals. I'd say because of that it's worth a watch if you're bored but not in many other scenarios. Surprisingly, Cruise steals this by perfectly playing Jaxx. It really is a shame because this movie has good parts just it kills classic songs and makes characters look stupid. It's not the worst but it ain't good.…Expand